Please join me along with the Center for International Education in welcoming our new and returning international students. Come enjoy complimentary coffee and pizza while socializing with our students.

Evening administrators are available on both campuses Monday through Thursday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. If you need assistance, please contact an administrator at the number listed below:

Kentfield Campus (415) 747-0699
Indian Valley Campus (415) 747-0658

If you would like a campus police officer to contact you, call dispatch at ext. 7696 or (415) 485-9696. For life/property threatening emergencies call 911.

Did You Know…

According to a recent media advisory sent by the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, Californians with a college degree will earn $1,340,000 more than their peers with only a high school diploma and students who earn a degree or certificate from a California community college nearly double their earnings within three years. Also, attending or graduating from a community college doubles an individual’s chance of finding a job compared to those who failed to complete high school. The California Community Colleges is the largest system of higher education in the nation.

Cop’s Corner

Receive immediate text messages of campus closures and emergencies by signing up for AlertU, College of Marin’s emergency notification system. Marin Community College District Police Department, with sponsorship from alertu.org, has an emergency SMS messaging platform to enhance communication services during crisis situations. The program allows campus police to broadcast critical information in real time to mobile devices of employees and students. This is particularly important for those who may be in or near a crisis zone. Subscribers can also relay emergency information to our AlertU account manager or administrator from inside a crisis zone. Friends and family members are also able to subscribe to receive updates. To sign up, go to AlertU and follow directions. There is no cost to sign up for this service. Standard text message rates may apply.

Indian Valley Organic Farm & Garden Is Hiring Students

Students are invited to learn principles and practices of organic farming through a hands-on work-study program at the Indian Valley Organic Farm & Garden. Students will learn cultivation, propagation and marketing as part of a unique experience that is created through the College of Marin and Conservation Corps North Bay. Eligible students must be enrolled in at least six units, qualify for financial aid and be able to work about 22.5 to 25 hours per week. For more information contact Aurea Tanchoco at (415) 454-4554, ext.142 or apply online.

New Academic Center Update; Circle Drive Closure

People visiting the Kentfield Campus will continue to see ongoing progress at the site of the New Academic Center. Wright Contracting Inc. has set up job-site trailers and is connecting temporary utilities and completing site surveys. Grading and soil removal will continue this week, resulting in closure of Circle Drive from 7 a.m. to 4.p.m. each day through September 11. Accessible parking and drop-off will be redirected to lot 4 between the Performing Arts and Science, Math, Nursing Buildings. A temporary walkway will be installed for safe crossing from parking lot 2. Please pay close attention to signage. You can expect intermittent closures in the future, as safety is our highest priority. Thank you in advance for your cooperation. If you have any questions about access, please contact Director of Modernization Laura McCarty, (415) 485-9343 or Bernard Rottner, Jacobs Project Management Company, (415) 884-3147.

Accreditation Progress Report Available for Your Review

You are invited to read our accreditation progress report and provide feedback through your respective senate presidents. The draft report, available online, responds to nine recommendations made earlier this year by a visiting accreditation team as well as 26 planning agenda items included in the Institutional Self Study Report 2010. I think you will be impressed with what the College has accomplished in recent years. The final draft is due in mid-October.

Kudos

Crystal Lee, an alumna of College of Marin and daughter of long-time Information Technology staff member Wendy Lee, has won the Miss California crown. Lee, 22, a San Francisco native, studied dance at College of Marin as well as the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts then went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in human biology and a master’s degree in Communication and Media Studies from Stanford University. She has been working in recent months as an intern at a Silicon Valley startup and hopes to use her $12,000 scholarship from Miss California to pursue a master’s degree in Business Administration. Lee flew back East this week to compete for the national title of Miss America to be held September 15 in Atlantic City, NJ. Her Miss America platform is supporting girls in science, technology, engineering and math programs. If you’re interested in showing her support, you can visit the Miss America site and vote for her in the video contest. Congratulations to Wendy. We know you must be very proud!

Upcoming Events

Fall Volunteer Orientation and Training

Learn some of the basics of organic gardening by volunteering at our own Organic Farm & Garden and help our gardens grow. Volunteers learn to harvest crops and flowers at their prime, prepare soil for transplanting and seeding, identify weeds and precision weed for timely and efficient removal, plant seedlings and many more elements of organic gardening. At the orientation this Saturday, guests will see the beauty of the farm, birds, and insects and help our garden grown.

Please join our student Veterans Association, the Associated Students, and the Office of Student Affairs in honoring our veterans at a flag-raising ceremony, followed by an open house at the Veterans Services Center. The tentative schedule includes a welcome by a student veteran and Dr. Coon and raising of the flag, followed by an invitation to visit the Veterans Services Center.

The Veterans Services Center opened last year with seed funding by the Associated Students at College of Marin and private donors. The center provides extended resources for about half of the 100 student veterans on campus. The COM Veterans Services Center has received a generous donation from the Blue Star Moms of Marin, a chapter of the Blue Star Mothers of America, who originally came together during WWII. The Blue Star Moms came together again shortly after the terrorist's attacks on September 11, 2001.

About 30,000 men and women leave the military and return to California each year; a number that is expected to increase dramatically as the war in Afghanistan winds down and the military downsizes. While many students have signed up for education benefits under the enhanced GI Bill, student veterans often need additional assistance to ensure their academic success and transition to productive civilian lives. For more information about the Veterans Services Center, call (415) 457-8811, ext. 7782.

Health Center Flu Shots

Flu shots will be available on both campuses to anyone over 18 years of age for $20. The Health Center does not bill insurance plans and is not a Medicare provider. Call (415) 485-9458, for more information.

Come stock up on the freshest organic produce, herbs, flowers and plants – all while enjoying live music, tastings, face painting, bouquet-making and farm tours at the IVC Organic Farm & Garden Fall Plant Sale. There will also be a Native Feast Day Celebration, Sunday, Sept. 29, Noon – 3 p.m. The Native Feast Day is a collaboration with the Cultural Conservancy, Seventh Native American Generation and other native youth groups. It will include an afternoon of seed saving, native food tastings, storytelling and tours of the future ethno botanical garden at IVOF&G. Guest speakers include Coast Miwok and Jenner Pomo Jacquelyn Ross, a fisherwoman, native food gatherer, educator and writer; and Kiowa Lois Ellen Frank, a Sana Fe, NM-based chef, culinary anthropologist, photographer and author of Indian Foods of the Southwest Nations. All proceeds support the operation of the Indian Valley Organic Farm & Garden. For more information, contact Jennie Pardi at (415) 720-2771 or, or visit the Conservation Corps website.

The artistic mastery of internationally revered artist Richard Diebenkorn will be presented in a premier exhibit at the Fine Arts Gallery beginning Monday, September 30, 2013. The seven-week exhibit features 40 pieces, 38 of which have never been publicly viewed. The selected works on paper portray a richly intimate glimpse into the artist’s evolution spanning more than 40 years. The show, which includes pencil and ink drawings on paper, collages of torn paper and watercolors, is the first show to be produced by the Diebenkorn Foundation.

Chester Arnold, chair of the Fine Arts Department at College of Marin, a painting instructor and artist, curated the exhibit. He sifted through hundreds of drawings, many of which were unframed in flat files in storage at the Foundation. Some of them were created in lean times for the artist on the back of old advertising posters for Mother’s Cookies and Pennzoil.

The Intimate Diebenkorn: Works on Paper 1949–1992September 28 – November 14, 2013Gallery Hours: Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. and Thursdays, 10 a.m. – 8 p.m.
One Saturday only, September 28, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
College of Marin Fine Arts Gallery
Kentfield Campus
The show is open to the public free of charge.

Advanced Voice Singers Choice Recital: Canzoni Preferiti

Under the direction of instructor Linda Noble Brown, the Advanced Voice class at College of Marin presents a fall concert recital of favorite art songs and arias. It will be a program of songs by the likes of Mozart, Schumann, Wolf, and Faure, as well as arias from the traditional canon by Bizet, Puccini, Verdi and Bellini, and perhaps even a couple songs from traditional musical theatre to round off the program.

When it made its Broadway debut in 1947, A Streetcar Named Desire paved the way for a whole new genre of theatrical experience steeped in the technique of “method acting.” Emotionally fragile Blanche DuBois, struggling to hang on to her stability and the disappearing world of Southern gentility, arrives in the hot, steamy, squalid French Quarter of New Orleans where her pregnant sister Stella is living with her husband Stanley Kowalski. Stanley is a force of nature, primal, brutish and sensual. When Blanche sets up court in his house, Stanley becomes infuriated and the collision between the two causes Blanche to draw deeper into the world of illusion and fantasy. One of Broadway’s most celebrated plays of all time, “Streetcar” won the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and New York Drama Critics’ Circle award for Best Play and has enjoyed many awards and nominations throughout several revivals since its premiere.

Buy fresh organic produce at the Indian Valley Organic Farm & Garden. To learn more about what’s growing on the Farm, sign up for the Farm Bulletin.

Wednesdays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Indian Valley Campus

New Food Truck Cooking Up Organic Meals at IVC

Drop-in food service by M Woodward Catering via a mobile restaurant – The Retro Wagon Gastro Grub Express – is now available at the Indian Valley Campus. The menu includes delicious comfort food and weekly specials with a modern twist. All food items are locally sourced and organic. Gluten-free bread choices are available on request.

The Emeritus Students of the College of Marin are sponsoring an exhibit of Petaluma artists Muriel Sutcher Knapp and Medley McClary. Knapp studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and received a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design from the University of Illinois. She worked as an elementary school teacher for 21 years, devoting herself to art upon her retirement. She paints still lifes and portraits in oils and acrylics and works in textiles as well. Her work has been shown regionally and in the Midwest. She is a founding member of the Petaluma Arts Council and a member of the Sebastopol Center of the Arts and the Petaluma Arts Association where she chaired the program committee for seven years. McClary, who spent most of her childhood in Asia, works in various mediums, creating acrylic landscapes on canvas, commissioned portraits in pencil, and clothing design in leather as well as jewelry, and photography. “When I draw a portrait, I search for that particular look or gesture that will give me a glimpse into the subject’s personality and which expresses their unique beauty and grace,” she says. Her portraits have been featured at the Petaluma Gallery One, Apple Box Café, and Copperfield’s Books.

Monday through Friday, 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Through September 26
Emeritus Center Gallery
Student Services Building, room 146
Kentfield Campus
The show is open to the public free of charge.

College of Marin is accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, Western Association of Schools and Colleges and is one of 112 public community colleges in California. Approximately 11,000 credit and noncredit students enroll annually.